It's unclear how long the deal will last for and buyers must specially request it

These days, smartphone data plans seem to be getting more and more restricted. Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) killed unlimited tethering and rolled out the most expensive tethering plans on the market for new customers. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group Plc. (LON:VOD), and AT&T Inc. (T) both killed their unlimited data plans, replacing them with expensive metered plans [1][2]. Even Deutsche Telekom AG's (ETR:DTE) T-Mobile USA has smacked users with a cap, though it at least merely throttles over-cap users, offering no fines for exceeding your cap.

That's why it's refreshing to see a bit of movement -- even if merely temporary -- in the other direction.

Verizon Wireless is reportedly preparing to offer a double data Christmas special. Customers who buy a new 4G smartphone will be eligible to get twice the normal data. $30 USD/month buys you a doubled 2GB (4GB), $50 USD gets you 10GB and $80 USD gets you 20GB of total LTE usage.

Now the sort of bad news is that apparently you have to specially request this deal and it’s going to be a very short-term promotion. And the possibly very bad news is that this may be a bait-and-switch -- Verizon has offered no promises of grandfathering new enrollees at the elevated rates for the remainder of their plans. In other words, this double data bonanza may only last a couple months, at which time the standard caps may roll in.

[Source: VZBuzz]

Still, however short-lived the plan will benefit some customers and does serve as a promising sign that the wireless carriers are catching on to customer frustration about capped connections.